New School Year Resolutions Linky

Hey all! Sorry for the silence on my end the past week! I enjoyed a trip to Kansas for my friends Bachelorette and Bridal parties. I am back!!! :) I am going to start working on more and more for school these next few days. Also, spend some time getting my classroom ready!

Have you started in your classroom yet?

Amanda at Teaching Madness started a linky about your “New {School} Year Resolutions” and here I go sharing mine:

 

Resolution #1: Contact the parents of ALL students. We are required to contact parents more then one time a week for those that are receiving intervention. I want to make sure to do it for ALL students! I seem to NEVER talk to some parents and others I talk to more then two times a week!

 

Resolution #2 Watch my volume. I seem to talk and teach at a loud volume. It really hurts my throat by the end of the day. I want to keep my voice down and maybe it will help keep the students’ voices down too!

 

Resolution #3 Document more.  I want to put together a teacher folder and inside of it I want to be able to document more! There are many times when I wished I would have documented better!

 

Resolution #4 Have fun! I sometimes loose sight that I am with KIDS! I am always thinking about the lesson or the time and I forget that we need to have some fun once in a while!

 

Ok, there are a few that I am excited to share with other bloggers! I can’t believe it’s already time for school to start!!

 

Winners!

 

First I want to thank EVERYONE who participated in my very first giveaway!! I can’t believe I am already to 100! You guys are amazing!

Now it’s time to tell who is the winner.. drum roll please….

Karla from Teach With A Smile won a $25 Target gift card,

Tanya from A+ Fristies won a $10 TPT gift card.

Thank you all for playing!

I may be a little quiet for almost a week due to a trip to Kansas! I will be driving for a bridal and bachelorette party!

Don’t forget!

Hey all! Sorry I have been MIA lately! I left to California Friday after meeting my 1st grade team for lunch. Check out my team members this year. Aren’t the awesome looking!? I promise they are just as awesome in person!

 

 

3 weeks ago my Meemee lost the battle with cancer. So we flew to California to celebrate her life. She was such an amazing grandmother. I hope to be such a loving and influential grandmother as she was some day!

  

Did you check out my Linky Party? I didn’t have anyone participate :(

I am just posting to remind you about the linky and don’t forget my giveaway!

Thank A Mentor Linky Party!

First off, I want to thank Ashley at The Resource Room Teacher for helping me put together my VERY first linky party! :)

 
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I challenge you to write a post about any of your mentors who have helped shaped who you are today! Make sure to tell us a little blurb about them and be sure to thank them for helping you. Once your post is done, come back and link up with others to see who helped them. Then your final task it to share with that mentor your link to your blog post! What a way to start your weekend!! :)

________________________________________________________________

My very first mentor was an amazing teacher named Abby G. It was my first year of school and the school I was starting at had a brand new principal along with new staff. It was like starting over from bottom and having to figure it all out as a new teacher. She welcomed me into her room for any questions I had, and I think I moved in right away! She was so willing to teach me new skills, allow me to observe lessons, and help me in any way possible. As a first year teacher, you NEED someone who is as willing as she was She made my first year a wonderful one! My best friend Chelsea and I were both brand spanking new teachers on the grade level and you would always find us in Abby’s room at the end of the day. What a fun year we had together! Thank you Abby!!




My 2nd mentor I meet when I moved to Texas and was welcomed to my 1st grade team. Moving to a new school is just as scary as being a new teacher! Especially when it’s at a whole new state with new standards and expectations. Jennifer D. was so helpful in making me feel like I knew what was going on. She was able to work at a pace that I understood and helped make it easy. She was my voice when I didn’t know what to do or say in situations. She helped make crazy times at school become fun and hilarious. Anything you needed help with she would do with a smile. She gave me her cell phone number the first day I met her, and I still call/ text her when I need anything! Not only has see been an amazing mentor but she gradually grew into one of my best friends! I think all mentors should have the type of personality that she has!

She was even a part of my wedding as guest book attendee!


Now head out and thank a mentor! I would LOVE to hear how it made your mentor(s) feel after seeing them on one of your blog posts!

Target Finds, Guilty Pleasures, and Owl Welcome Sign

First of all, I want to begin by welcoming my new followers! Welcome to Patterson’s Porch and I am glad you are here! Sit back. Relax. Share away! Thank you to all my first followers and for inviting all of these wonderful faces to check out my blog.

I took yet another trip to the Target $1 bins today! I bribed my husband in to coming with me. Target is located in two towns over. The trip is 30 minutes without traffic. He HATES when I get lost in the Target bins. He has a hard time understanding why I spend money for my classroom. He always asks, “Why don’t they give you a stipend for this stuff?” However, since I am hitting my 6th year, those questions have stopped being asked. Does your husband or someone else ask you those questions too? I always tell him that I do not HAVE to buy these things. I choose too. :)

The bins were very low and I only found a few things:

Another cute owl decoration!

These are magnetic boards that you can hang. Or in my case, let the students use them on their laps with some magnetic letters!

 

And these cool dry erase, ruled paper, boards! They are on both sides too! Kids will enjoy having these to write on in a center.

Not much but still something! Plus, I also bought the husband some candy! He did a good job helping. ;)

My new friend Ashley at The Resource Room is helping me prepare a linky! Be on the look out for it on Friday! However, Ashley has a great linky going on right now about guilty pleasures. Check it out.

My guilty pleasures are ranked by least to highest severity!

#4 My Kindle: I take it everywhere I go and even have the app on my phone. Growing up and being a military child we had to move a lot. Plus we had to take long trips to see family for holidays. So reading became my entertainment. Plus, my little sister annoyed me and when I read my parents told her to leave me alone. Haha! Little sisters are such pests! ;) I still enjoy to read. There are days that I will actually spend all day with my kindle in my hand from the time I wake up until I shut my eyes to go to sleep!

#3 Bluebell Ice Cream. The town that I live in now has a ice cream parlor and serves Bluebell. Once spring hit, a few teachers and I would meet there every Friday after school. I have an addiction to cookies n cream, banana pudding, and now have a new addiction. My friend Jennifer introduced this dangerous, amazing, delicious flavor to me:

#2 Blogging. I have only been blogging 3 weeks and I am already addicted! I have SO much to learn and I can’t wait to see where this takes me! I have already turned my dining room table into my office! Oops!

#1 Starbucks. Gold member card holder and they know me by name… uh oh! I think this is more of an addiction than a guilty pleasure. My husband said I need an intervention! Haha!

Those are just a few of my guilty pleasures.

Before I go, I want to share the owls I made to put on around my door of my classroom! You can click on it to get it for a $1 at my TPT store!

50th Follower Giveaway!!

Hey all! I am excited to be doing my VERY first giveaway!! I have hit 50 followers and I couldn't be more appreciative! Many of you were beginner bloggers at one point. You know how it feels to see that number climb from 1 all the way to 50! I feel like an "official blogger" now! Thank you all for your comments and your support!

To show my appreciation I have two prizes to give away to 2 lucky followers!!
The first prize is a $25 gift card to Target! To help aid in the purchases for your classroom and/or anything else you would want to use it for!

The second prize is a $10 gift card to Teacher Pay Teachers.

Good luck!!
 
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Laptop is back! Painting, Linky, and FREE publications!

Hey all! I got my laptop back yesterday and after the day on the lake I was too sleepy to post! I don’t understand how the sun can take SO much out of you!

I wanted to share pictures from my trip to Painting With a Twist on Saturday!

Check out these pictures of the art work in progress and the finished product!

Lindsay at The Teacher Wife is having a linky wanting to know what our top 5 favorite picture books are! I think this is a fun linky that you should participate in too! So here are my top 5 favorite books!

 

#1: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive The Bus! By Mo Willems. The kids will LOVE this story right away! The pigeon REALLY wants to drive the bus. However, the Bus Driver asked you to make sure he doesn’t. He tries his hardest to persuade the reader into letting him! Using words that even kids would use, “I’ll give you 5 bucks!” “That’s not fair!” It’s a MUST have for a first grade classroom! There are many more in the series: Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay up Late. The Pigeon Wants a Puppy. The Pigeon finds a hot dog. The Pigeon Gets a Cookie.

#2 Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems. (Pronouned K-nuffle, yep the WRONG way!) Another good one about Trixie and her Knuffle Bunny! I love the background images. We go through magazines to find our own background then I give the students a Knuffle Bunny drawing to put there. They LOVE the story! There is 2 more in the series: Knuffle Bunny, Too. Knuffle Bunny Free!

#3 Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems. (Do you see a trend here?) Another hilarious book about a monster who can’t frighten anyone! He goes out and tries to learn how. I am not going to give away the rest of the book!

#4 Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems.There are SO many to name! The words are easy reads for the students. However, it’s their facial expressions that make this book HILARIOUS! The kids LOVE them and if you go to pigeonpresents.com you can even get them to dance! A secret for you. In all of Mo Willems’ Elephant and Piggie books and with most of his other books, you will find characters from his other stories. However, the Pigeon can be found in EVERY Elephant and Piggie book! The kids love looking for him after we read one!

So you noticed that I am a BIG Mo Willem's? :) I Just wanted to share my love for his books! Especially the Pigeon! I think I will wait to show you what I plan on doing with the Pigeon along with some directed drawing! :)

#5 Porcupining: A Prickly Love Story by Lisa Wheeler. This book is SOOO cute! It’s about a porcupine trying to find love. No one wants to love him because of his needles. The song he sings is SO adorable. Again, I will not spoil the end for you. If you are able to use TumbleBooks. I highly recommend letting them read this book to the class! They will ask you to play it again and again!

 

My last bit of information before I head to my comfy couch for the night…

Have you ever hear of the National Institute for Literacy? Well, I didn’t until I was in my Master Reading Teacher Certification classes. The teacher shared with us about this website where you can get FREE publications for your classroom, school, or for parents! I couldn’t believe it! Free?? Teachers LOVE free!! So I went and tested this out.

I went to www.nifl.gov and picked out 20 copies of this book called, “ A Child Becomes A Reader: Proven Ideas From Research For Parents. (At this point I am STILL hesitant that these would be free!) I filled out all the information and patiently waiting for the part where I put in my credit card information. I finished and it said it would be mailed to me. I didn’t really mess around on the website any more. Clicked off and went about my business.

Well, two days later – yes I said TWO- they were waiting for me at my door! I couldn’t believe it! Here is what they look like!

This book is 40 pages long! It’s NOT made cheap and I am SUPER excited to give these out to parents at Parent Orientation and/or Meet The Teacher. It’s for grades K-3 and has some really good information. Here are 2 pages that I enjoyed when I looked through them:

This is what you see when you get to the 1st grade page 

I like how they use use the actual word “Phonemic Awareness” and gives parents examples.

Another page is titled: “What children should be able to do by the end of first grade.” Most parents are asking me what they can do to help their child succeed. Now I can just show them those two pages as a guideline.

I hear my couch saying, “DAAANNNNIII!!!” So off I go! Have a fantastic week!

Laptop is headed to the Doctors…

Hey y’all! My laptop is headed to the doctor, aka my dad. I caught a virus and it needs some treatments. Hopefully he will fix it over night and I will be back and running by tomorrow! My dad is my computers hero and I know it’s in good hands!

I am sad to not post anything exciting to share. However, I see my follower number reaching closer to 50! Eeeeee!! Makes me SO happy to see all your lovely faces! :) I guess I need to get started on what I will “give away!”

Have any of you heard of Painting With A Twist? Well, it’s a place where they do a directed drawing and painting until you have a final product. Each person who comes to the class does the SAME painting. However, when we are done everyone's painting looks so different. Reminds me of what I do in my 1st grade classroom for directed drawing. And I promise you, you will know how the kids feel during your directed drawing! You want it SO perfect and to match the teachers. However, you get to BYOB and I usually bring a bottle of wine to share with a friend. The wine helps you calm your nerves and you actually enjoy yourself in the end! I am taking my mom to the class here in a few and I can’t wait for her to experience it! Here is the painting we are going to do. Click on the painting to see what Painting With A Twist is!

  

I will return tomorrow after the doctor has taken amazing care of my laptop and a trip on the lake! When I return I want to share a few giveaways that are going on and I will share picture of mom and I at the Painting class!

Happy Saturday!

Friday Freebie Link-Up!

Before I head out to spend some time with fellow teachers, I wanted to share the Fridays Freebie Link-Up! Also to wish everyone a Happy Friday the 13th! (Queue scary music!) I think I had a Friday the 13th yesterday! Click here to hear about my day!



Since I had such an amazing turn out with my buddy read center poster. I thought I would share them again! You  can see the original post here.

Click on the picture to be taken to my TPT store!

Rough Day: DVR, Bad Dogs, and Giveaways…

Last week my Dish network box was making some SUPER loud sound that made me thing it was going to explode! I contacted Dish and after making me feel like a dummy with their questions (is it on the carpet? is something on top of it?), they ordered me a new one. I got it yesterday and my husband said to me, “You have to watch all your DVR shows before we can switch it.” Ahhh!! So while I type this I am catching up on Craft Wars and Snooki & JWOWW (don’t judge me!).

Also, I am grounding two BAD DOGS right now. If you read my “About Dani” section of my blog, you know I have a big dog named Maverick, and a little dog named Fergie. Well today they are both in trouble!

Maverick is a BIG baby when it comes to rain and storms. He stays outside when we are at work, because he destroys things inside when we are gone. Well the past few days we have had some nasty storms. He usually just escapes the fence and sits by the front door until we get home. Today was different…. he decided to destroy our back door and frame. Here are just a few pictures to show you:

Here’s a picture of the naughty boy trying not to make eye contact with me:

Yep.. Not going to show what he did to the actually screen door… Grr!!

Then… since Maverick came inside he slept on Fergie’s bed and he STUNK. So I unzipped her bed to put it in the wash. When it was done in the washer I went to go get it to put it in the dryer and I heard her digging in the bedroom. I walked into this:

And here is a picture of Fergie hiding under the bed.

So, how was your day?!?

Did you know about these giveaways??? Be sure to check them out!

Hope you have a better Thursday than two naughty doggies!!